At the ripe age of 20, Elton John had been performing on the pub circuit and working at a record company for five years. But his break arrived in 1967, when he answered an advert posted in the NME by A&R manager Liberty Records.

Songwriter Bernie Taupin, pictured, had also answered the same advert, and when the pair met Taupin handed John - then known as Reginald Dwight - a stack of lyrics.

John began to write music for his lyrics and posted it back to Taupin, starting a lifelong partnership that has generated dozens of hits.

What wasn't to last, however, was John's birth name - he ditched Reginald Dwight within six months of meeting Taupin and had re-cast himself as Elton John, joining the names of two favourite blues artists: saxophonist Elton Dean and vocalist Long John Baldry.